Run Divine Divinity in XP SP3 compatibility mode or it will crash occasionally. It is less stable than Beyond Divinity even though its the same engine. Both Gothic and Baldurs are a great next choice. Don't be intimidated by Baldur's in terms of complexity, it starts out very tutorialish with just your main character. Plus it is an early rule set and lacks the D&D complexity of 3.x and upwards.

For me at least on XP Gothic was pretty stable - but crashed on me a few times in the temple towards the end. I haven't tried it on Win7 though. That game is very old and hasn't had the mod support like Morrowind (it's contemporary in the day) for obvious reasons of course. I suppose it isn't going to get any more stable with age.

Thanks again for all the help fellas. I think RPGWatch is going to become even better for me now that I'm gaming on my PC.

By the way, I'm running Windows Vista, 32-bit, if that means anything.

I also found it easier to alt-tab out of Divine Divinity if my screen resolution was set to 1078x768 or whatever. Just matched my laptop to the resolution of the game and alt-tabbing is now much better. The screen doesn't flicker like crazy and so far, no crashes.

Okay, it just crashed again. Note to self, do not go on the internet with Divine Divinity running in the background!

Thanks Count! I will check out that cooler. I may not need it, I'll have to test it more tomorrow, but I've been able to get my laptop to run about 10 degrees Celsius cooler just by undervolting it a bit. I'd like to get it even cooler if possible. But if I can run the game for a few hours tomorrow and it doesn't shut off, I'd say I'm in pretty good shape. If I still have problems I will buy that cooler. Wish me luck…

Originally Posted by ToddMcF2002
For me at least on XP Gothic was pretty stable - but crashed on me a few times in the temple towards the end. I haven't tried it on Win7 though. That game is very old and hasn't had the mod support like Morrowind (it's contemporary in the day) for obvious reasons of course. I suppose it isn't going to get any more stable with age.

I have Gothic installed on Windows 7 64, and it runs fine. I just have it set to run in WinXP (Service Pack 2) compatibility. There was a time when it wouldn't run on anything newer than WinXP if you were using an Nvidia graphics card, but that was fixed in their drivers a while back.

Originally Posted by Fluent
By the way, I'm running Windows Vista, 32-bit, if that means anything.

Originally Posted by Fluent
Thanks Count! I will check out that cooler. I may not need it, I'll have to test it more tomorrow, but I've been able to get my laptop to run about 10 degrees Celsius cooler just by undervolting it a bit. I'd like to get it even cooler if possible. But if I can run the game for a few hours tomorrow and it doesn't shut off, I'd say I'm in pretty good shape. If I still have problems I will buy that cooler. Wish me luck…

I've never cleaned the fan since I owned the laptop. I would blow the dust away from the fan but I never took it apart and cleaned it or took a can of compressed air to it.

I did sort out the overheating though, thanks to some nifty free programs and guides I found on the web. Was able to lower the temps by about 20 degrees Fahrenheit, and now the laptop is much cooler and hasn't shut off at all . Back to gaming we go…

Originally Posted by Pladio
I remember Gothic being prone to crashing and it was so easy to forget to save (as I found it very immersive - if that's a word) that I lost several hours of gameplay at a time…

I never played DivDiv as I had a Diablo overdose after playing DII for a year and a bit.

I still have to play Risen, but I don't have enough continuous time to do it.

Risen is good. I enjoyed playing the Xbox 360 version and it was my first Piranha Bytes game. It had some good ideas in it. I liked how the quests were done, and it felt really immersive like you were actually on an island that was very dangerous. You never knew what was around the next corner and it had a great sense of exploration. Definitely want to go back and finish that game as I kind of left it hanging when Skyrim came out.

Also, Diablo 2 is great, but Divine Divinity is just as good I think. DivDiv is not as loot heavy as a Diablo, but it does have plenty of loot. It has a ton of side quests and they are pretty fun to complete. Didn't get too far in the story but from what I saw so far, it was good. It has a nice sense of exploration too. And the trading/bartering system. Oh man, I love it. I'm such a nerd but the trading system is one of the best parts of the game. It's just a lot of fun trading things with nearly everyone you meet.

Definitely would recommend you try Divine Divinity. It still holds up today IMO as a very good game.

Still want a give a shout out to the Might And Magic's 6,7 &8. I had so much fun with 7 last week, I jumped into 8 and didn't go to bed till 3:00am (I only need 4 hours).

As far as the Gothic - I would start with Gothic 2. It has normal game controls but has the same great game experience. Then after you're hooked on the Gothic world playing Gothic 1 will literally be like going in a time machine. Some of the closed off villages in Gothic 2 are full fledged towns in Gothic 1. I wish more games were made with that deliberate intention.

Just to add some history - Gothic 1 came out the same time as Morrowwind. There were huge fanboy fights at the time about which game was the better. I sided with Morrowwind at the time and poo poohed the silly Gothic one with its ridiculous controls and inferior graphics. The fanboy fights actually made me afraid to play Gothic 1. Anyways during an RPG lull I picked up Gothic 2. And even while playing it it became my favorite RPG of all time. I soon thereafter played Gothic 1. And yes it was wonky and Morrowind does trump Gothic 1, But Gothic 2 for the win.

Two things really impressed me about the early Gothic worlds. A singular skeletin can kick your early level butt, so can a pair of woves. And when you out run an enemy they will just quit - I gothic 2 they will even call you names for running away. Compare that to most games where once you engage an enemy you stay engaged. I had an enemy chase me in and out of a house in Ovlivion even though you had to reload the game when you went from the interiour to the exterior.

As far as what i call Div Div. (Divine Divinity), I commend you for an excellent choice. Div Div is in my top 5 RPGs of all time. And there are not too many game soundtracks you will hear that will top that score. Great music, great game play and a great game. I actually had the Div Div music on many of my computers for years. However, that early dungeon did keep me out of the game for about a year. But the forum effect was so great I just drudged through it.

While I understand Dajjer's arguments, with your background I think you should start with the first Gothic and force yourself to come to terms with the controls. The reward will be no learning curve at all for Gothic 2. In case of G2 you have the option of playing either G2 followed by the add-in or immediately the incredibly hard G2 Gold.

I agree with Gorath, you should start with Gothic 1. There are many NPCs you meet in the first game who also show up in Gothic 2. Being familiar with them and understanding the events they refer to will make it more enjoyable.

I had read a lot on this forum (or was it on RPGDot at the time?) about Gothic 1 right after it came out, so I picked it up. I installed it, ran down a hill, couldn't figure out the controls, and gave up. I had other games I could play, so I set it down for a few months at least. One night I decided to install it again and try, since it was still getting a lot of love from the forum. I got frustrated again, but stuck through it, and soon decided that the controls were actually pretty intuitive. Im glad I stuck with it as it became my favorite all-time game. Very cool and still one of the best "living worlds" I have run across. Great game and highly recommended. The inventory system could be better, but its not a game breaker by any means (I think Divine Divinity has a much worse inventory system)

I thought the story in G2 was pretty boring, at least as far as I played it. The running around from farm to farm got dull. I got to Chapter 2 with the vanilla game, and by the time I got the NotR add on, I didn't have the intestinal fortitude to go back through the entire 1st chapter again. I recently reinstalled it again, so maybe Ill give it another whirl. I also have G3 sitting here, and finally have a PC that can run it

Originally Posted by Nukester
I think Divine Divinity has a much worse inventory system)

Really?!? I absolutely adore the inventory system in Divine Divinity. It takes a little getting used to, yes, but once you do it's very nice IMO.

Thanks for the stories Dajjer and Nukester. It's interesting to hear other people's tales about these older games.

I have always been a console gamer, except for the occasional Diablo or Command and Conquer game. It wasn't until I started seeing people post on here about their favorite games and stuff, and a lot of them were saying Gothic, which I hadn't heard of before coming to this site. A little more investigative research and it turns out there was a ton of good RPGs that I missed over the years. Now that I'm gaming on my laptop it's great that I can run these older games and see what everyone loved about them. So far the few I've tried have been great!